Category: Writing 101

It was recently brought to my attention (by my own mother, strangely enough) that certain endings sit well with some people, and sit terribly with others.

My mother, brother and I were sitting at Qdoba, eating our burritos and discussing what movie my brother should watch with his friends that night. He said that one of his friends liked sappy romances, and I said that Fault in Our Stars would be a good choice.

(Hey, I don’t watch romantic movies much and I thought it was pretty good when I saw it, though the book was definitely better.)

I was immediately met with this almost disgusted look on my mother’s face. I asked what was wrong, and she responded, “doesn’t that movie end in a sad way?”

I nodded. “Yeah, it ends on a pretty sad note. Why does that matter?”

She shook her head and said, “I just don’t like movies that end in sad ways. I mean, come on! It’s the ending. It should be happy!”

I stared at her a bit, then burst out laughing. She asked me what I was laughing about, so I told her, “If I ever publish a book, do not read it. You will hate it. There is rarely a time when I end anything I write on a happy note. Every novel I’ve planned ends on a bittersweet note at best. You would hate me as an author.”

She changed the subject immediately.

That little anecdote should be enough to tell you what I’m getting at. Certain people like certain endings. Others like something entirely different. There’s no way to make everyone happy.

So, what ending should you go with?

That… Is entirely up to you.

That’s the honest truth. I can’t tell you what to write or what ending is best. I can tell you that I love those bittersweet endings that leave you with something to think about, but that doesn’t mean that those endings are the best. They’re just one type of ending that some people like.

What’s that? You’re wondering what all the different types of endings are?

Refer to the following image.

That, my friends.

That is how you separate all the different types of endings.

I know, I know. I always have the best answers.

There really isn’t anything else for me to say. How you end your piece of writing is entirely up to you and your style. I can’t tell you what ways are the best and what ways are the worst. It all depends on you.

The best advice I can give you is to end your piece of writing in a way that reflects everything you’ve been building up to that point.

…

….. What?

Still stuck?

If you still have no idea how to end your piece of writing, think about the following questions:

What sort of tone have you been creating over the course of your writing?

What has happened to your character(s) over the course of your writing?

And most importantly, what ending would most interest you?

Note: I did not say to think about what ending you would most want to read. Everyone wants a happy ending, but a happy ending isn’t always the most interesting. You need to think about what ending would most interest you, what ending would keep you thinking about the book days or even weeks later.

Now, seriously, there isn’t really anything else I can say on this topic. Only you can know what the best way to end your writing is.

Until next time!

P.S. The stanza up there is the last stanza of a common lullaby-type song. If you comment what song it’s from, you get a cookie!

I’ve been struggling with creating unique and beloved characters for years. It’s hard to create a fictional person that real people will feel attached to, and even harder to create multiple fictional people of that same caliber. With this in mind, I’ve created a list of sites that may help you in planning every detail of who your character is.

This list is not made up of characterization traits, mind you. If you’re looking for those, check out my list of helpful links for describing characters. The difference between this list and that list: this list is for the planning process, that list is for the writing.

Websites for Creating Characters

Character Flaws: Your characters can’t be flawless. Flawless is bad. Very bad. It’s unoriginal and boring. Your character needs flaws, and multiple of them at that. Here’s a nice list of flaws in alphabetical order, just in case you can’t think of enough. And no, “not pretty enough” is not a flaw. Your characters need real flaws that get them into messy situations. That’s how you make things interesting.

High-Level Description of the Sixteen Personality Types: If you’ve ever heard of the sixteen personality types, you’ll know that this is a great source. If you’re having trouble getting to know your characters, take the test for them and see what they get. It might just help you decide why your characters act the way they do based on what personality type they get. It sort of helps you decide what role they’ll play in a group.

Zodiac Signs Astrology: No, I don’t believe in all of the astrology hubaloo, but it is rather interesting… And it helps with creating characters. I wouldn’t rely on this list for creating characters, but it can help in minor ways. I’ve messed around with it before. If used in the right way, the astrological signs can be very helpful!

Ophiuchus: Have you ever heard of the 13th zodiac sign? It’s a real thing. Turns out, the zodiac signs we know and love don’t match the sky anymore. If the zodiac signs were to be accurate, the dates would have to be moved around… And Ophiuchus would have to be added! And guess what? I’m an Ophiuchus! It’s unnerving how well this zodiac fits me…

Hobbies Masterlist: What does your character do in his/her free time? Do you know? Need some ideas? Well, here you go! A masterlist of hobbies that has been compiled over the course of multiple years. Well, I think it’s taken that long. But either way, it’s a masterlist!

A List of All Religions and Belief Systems: It’s impossible to create a perfectly complete list of religions and belief systems, but this list comes pretty darn close. If your religion or belief system isn’t on this list, don’t be offended. The site didn’s mean to offend you, and neither did I. It just didn’t happen to be on this list. And anyway, this list is only meant to assist you in creating your characters. So no being offended!

List of Religions: This is another list of religions, but it only covers the major religions of the world. Note: Major is not synonymous with important. It just means the religions that have the most followers. It’s a narrower list, so you may prefer it.

List of Christian Denominations and Their Beliefs: I know Christianity has a crazy number of denominations. According to this site, there were about 43,000 denominations in 2012. Therefore, there is no perfect list for this either. However, in case you need a specific denomination for your character development, I found a site that does a good job of summarizing them. Note: I’m not going to go into the denominations of any other religions because I don’t feel like I know enough about them to do that.

Job Description Search Tool: If you need any help thinking of a career for your character, this entire site helps, but this page in particular can help if you already have an idea or have already messed with the other features of the website. Basically, you can use a Holland code to discover the perfect career for your character, or you can research the basic job you want them to have and it will give you more detailed options!

Comprehensive* List of LGBTQ+ Term Definitions: When creating your character, you need to know what their sexual orientation is. If you think figuring out the sexual orientation is easy, guess again. There are so many different terms for varying sexual orientations, and you need to know them all to make sure you don’t offend anyone.

List of Impairments- Adult Listings (Part A): Your character doesn’t necessarily need to have a disability or impairment of any sort. In fact, you should be very wary in giving characters disabilities and impairments. They’re very serious and should be treated as such. Don’t give them out all willy-nilly. However, if you have a good reason to give a character an impairment/disability, here’s the best place to start in choosing the right one.

Types of Addictions List: There are more addictions out there than just alcohol and drugs. If your character is going to be addicted to something, think carefully about what that addiction might be. Here’s a very extensive list of addictions that may help you in deciding. Note: Not every addiction possible is on this list. You may think of an addiction not present on this list. If so, congrats! There’s no reason for you not to use it.

I’ll go ahead and admit it: semicolons can be tricky. There’s a valid reason as to why writers tend to stay away from them. However, their reasoning isn’t that semicolons themselves are tricky; it’s that differentiating the semicolon from the regular colon and comma is tricky.

Already confused? Don’t worry, this entire post will be focused on breaking it down for you.

To start off, you should know that—unlike most of the punctuation out there—there isn’t ever really a time when semicolons are necessary. I mean, you’ve probably gone your entire life thus far without using a semicolon. That’s kind of proof enough that it isn’t necessary. However, there are a three reasons as to why you should use a semicolon:

When a sentence calls for a semicolon, you can’t replace it with some other punctuation. Semicolons are unique, and it just won’t work (or work as well). You could always change the sentence so that it doesn’t need a semicolon… but you’d still need to understand the semicolon to do that.

Semicolons can be very poetic. I’m not saying they’re always poetic or necessary in writing poetry, but they can definitely expand the possibilities of your writing and style,

Your teachers will be impressed. Seriously. How many people in the world do you think know how to properly use a semicolon? The only people I know with that knowledge are top English students or English teachers. My parents are brilliant, and even they have no clue!

If you still don’t care to know how to use semicolons…

… Why are you still here?

Seriously, this entire post is about using semicolons. Nothing else. If you don’t want to know about semicolons, you’re wasting your time.

… Still with me?

Then let’s get started.

The Basics

Now, as I stated before, there’s never really a time when semicolons are necessary. Therefore, there are never times when you should use semicolons, only times when you can use semicolons.

You’ve already seen two examples of when you can use semicolons earlier in this post. The second example follows slightly more complex guidelines than the first, but all semicolon usage follows the same basic rule:

Use a semicolon to combine two clauses that otherwise could have been two separate sentences.

This is a pretty easy rule to understand. Remember the first sentence I used in the introduction:

Some fear it; others see it as a challenge.

Pretty basic. And thinking about the overall rule I just gave you, you can probably see it as two separate sentences as well:

Some fear it. Others see it as a challenge.

Notice that the two separate sentences are grammatically correct on their own. This is important. The rule does not apply if the sentences are not complete. If they aren’t complete, you most likely have to use a different type of punctuation entirely.

You may be thinking, can’t I just use a comma? For this example in particular, yes, you could. However, notice the difference in how the sentence reads when a comma is used:

Some fear it, while others see it as a challenge.

It doesn’t have the same impact when a comma is used. This is why I say that semicolons can be poetic. The semicolon can make two basic sentences seem much more important than they really are.

Got It? Let’s Get a Bit More Complex.

The second example I used earlier follows the same basic idea. However, when you read the two combined sentences separately, you’ll notice something slightly peculiar:

However, their reasoning isn’t that semicolons themselves are tricky; it’s that differentiating the semicolon from the regular colon and comma is tricky.

However, their reasoning isn’t that semicolons themselves are tricky. It’s that differentiating the semicolon from the regular colon and comma is tricky.

It’s a bit hard to catch, but the sentences look and even sound a bit awkward when they’re separated. They’re meant to be connected and don’t sound quite right when they aren’t.

This is where semicolons get tricky. Some people consider this a proper use of the semicolon; some do not. It’s a matter of preference. My opinion is that it works, but if your teacher says it doesn’t, don’t test them. It’s not worth it.

When Not to Use a Semicolon

Semicolons do not replace commas!!! This is the biggest mistake people make when trying to use semicolons. In some cases, commas can replace semicolons, but the relationship only goes one way.

Don’t believe me? Here’s an example:

Correct: They fought hard, but all was for naught.

Incorrect: They fought hard; but all was for naught.

And another:

Correct: Though she loved him, she couldn’t marry him.

Incorrect: Though she loved him; she couldn’t marry him.

And another:

Correct: She loved to dance, so she did.

Incorrect: She loved to dance; so she did.

And one more, just to clarify:

Correct: Beware, for I am fearless and therefore powerful.

Incorrect:

DO NOT REPLACE COMMAS WITH SEMICOLONS. IT DOES NOT WORK.

That being said, commas aren’t the only punctuation commonly replaced with semicolons. People replace colons with semicolons as well, and I’ve even seen hyphens replaced with semicolons.

There’s an easy way to not make these mistakes:

Check to make sure no other punctuation works before testing the semicolon.

If no other punctuation works, then maybe a semicolon will. However, check all other forms of punctuation first.

If you’re still not confident that you know how to use a semicolon, check out this guide at GrammarBook.com. I used it to double check myself when I was writing this. It’s short, sweet, and very helpful.

Let me know what other grammar/writing rules you need help with! I’ll try to get to most things eventually, but if you need some help with something in particular, I’ll work on it immediately!

You know, the ones that you can’t research without people flipping out.

You know those touchy subjects that you just can’t research without people thinking you’re a murderer? Like how to kill someone with your bare hands, or how to disappear?

You no longer have to research such touchy subjects, because I’ve got all the sites you need gathered right here!

(Well, hopefully.)

There’s all sorts of touchy subjects on this list, as well as a few not-so-touchy subjects that are still helpful and still might make people question you. Either way, this will definitely be a fun set of websites to explore.

Anyway, there’s really not much more to add beyond, happy writing from the dark side!

Note/disclaimer: Please do NOT use these sources to learn how to torture/harm/kill real living beings. If you do, I am not responsible for it. Character cruelty/death? I take full responsibility. Living creature cruelty/death? Absolutely not. I’m telling you now, don’t do it.

I will probably be adding to this list as well. There’s a lot that can still be added…

Websites for Those Touchy Topics

The Phobia List: I’ll start off simple with a site I’m sure we’ve all stumbled upon at some point. This site is literally completely comprised of a list of every single phobia, as well as some links to other sites that have to do with phobias. It’s really a great list, though it’s pretty lengthy. But if you want to give your character a deathly fear, this is the best place to go for your research.

The Limits of the Human Body: Alright, enough with the simple stuff. Time to dive in. If you’re planning on torturing your characters a bit or bringing them within inches of death, you’ll need this list. Blood loss, dehydration, body temperature, you name it! It’s all here in one organized chart.

Limits Of The Human Body: For more detailed information and other limits not on the chart, this is a good site. It’s a very detailed discussion that even I haven’t gotten all the way through.

10 Methods of Death: I’m just going to link this right here, right after the limits of the human body, so you know how to cause these deaths… Yeah, I love this site. It’s one of my favorites. I love the idea of writing from the perspective of someone who’s actually dying. Any with this site, you can do just that accurately!!! Awesome. Pure awesome.

How to Diappear Completely: This is the real deal. Seriously, just check it out! It’s a complete and detailed, step-by-step guide on how to disappear entirely and without a trace. It’s meant to help people who want to disappear and start a new life, and if I was planning on doing just that, this would be a very helpful place to start! And you know, actually, it is a helpful website for me because, hey, look at that! I’d love to make that character disappear completely…

On Writing Mentally Ill & Insane Characters: I don’t know if any of you will want to use this source, but I definitely do. In fact, the main character of the main novel I’m working on right now is mentally ill, to an extent. I can’t give you any spoilers beyond that, sorry to say, but this is a very helpful source for such necessary research.

This is a Towel: Mental Disorders: I actually like this website more than the one above. It has some points on what to know when writing a mental disorder, as well as links to other sites that help you write specific disorders, and a listing of sorts for different types of disorders.

Emotional Wounds Thesaurus: I’m sorry to say this isn’t a complete list (you’ll have to get the book to have that), but it still helps in understanding the common traumatic experiences listed. Seriously, this list is awesome. And if you’re trying to create a character with a specific traumatic experience, this can really help you get them right. Note: A character should not have all of the traits listed on each page. Only some of them. Pick and choose carefully in order to build your character accurately.

25 Methods for Killing With Your Bare Hands: And these are the types of websites that make people think you’re a serial killer. Can you believe this website was blocked in my school? Seriously, people, just let me live my life! Oh, and this site is exactly what it sounds like. Warning: It’s a bit graphic at times.

16 Steps To Kill Someone And Not Get Caught: This site has good tips to follow when having characters kill other characters, as well as a few good-to-know facts. You know, for whenever you’re ready to do some killing.

Havocscope: The perfectly legal way to learn illegal things. It uses newspapers and police reports to tell you how much all sorts of illegal stuff costs. And no one can tell you off for it, because it’s totally legal, thank goodness!!!

Other Important Survival Skills & Information: If you’re planning on putting your character through a high-stakes situation, you need to know what it would take for them to survive. This kind blogger has put togther a whole listing of links that will take you to pages of information about surviving any given situation. Yeah. It’s awesome.

This blog is amazing! It’s basically just a compilation of a bunch of powerpoints about all sorts of stuff, from death to cancer, from sexual assault to child development. Everything you need to create an accurate story, detailed in a very organized format, all in one place!

An intro to the art of killing characters, brought to you by a master.

So there’s this book series that everyone is going crazy about. You weren’t planning on reading it, but your best friend begs you to read, and after much pestering, you agree.

You get through the first book in one week. It was amazing, and you rush to get the second book. As you read, you meet this awesome character named Sam. He’s not made out to be super awesome, not focused on, not even a hero! But you can’t help but love him. There’s just something about him that makes him the most loveable character of the story.

You keep reading the series, and you love him more and more with each book. He’s just the best! There’s nothing about him that’s perfect, yet you can’t help but feel like that’s exactly what he is.

You get to the last book, and you’re pumped for a grand finale. There’s no way it won’t be awesome, because the entire series has just been so amazing and the author is the best writer ever!

You get to the last few chapters, and… Wait. What? What?!?!?

WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?

THE AUTHOR KILLED SAM!!!!!!!!!!!

Why You Should Kill Characters

Yes, I am condoning the killing of characters.

I know, I know! Based on the painfully relatable character death I just wrote out, you would think killing characters is a bad thing. Especially killing favorite characters.

However, think back to all those favorite characters who died in your favorite stories.

(By the way, you should have seen that one coming. Fred rhymes with dead. Good authors love stuff like that.)

Anyway, I do have a point to this post beyond making you hurt over all of these deaths yet again.

Note how much you loved all of these characters, and how they impacted you more than maybe even the main characer. Think about how their deaths made you feel, and how differently you would have felt if they had survived.

Those deaths might hurt, but they were the deaths that really made those books amazing.

Now, if you’re trying to become a top writer, you have to kill characters. It’s a necessity (not really, but I think it is). More importantly, you have to know how to choose which characters to kill, and how to kill them in a way that actually gives the death a point.

I’ll start with how to choose the right characters to kill. It’s actually a pretty basic process that includes exactly three steps:

Before you start choosing, keep in mind that if you love a side character (not because they’re super-awesome-perfect, but because they’re them), your audience will likely love them as well. If you immediately love a character, don’t immediately decide to kill them. Develop the story a bit first. Either write a ways into it to see if their character remains the same, or outline a plot and specific scenes a bit. If you only find yourself loving them more, you can confirm that the audience will love them.

Take a look at your other characters. If you kill one character, what will that do to your other characters? Will it force another character to take a role as a leader? Will it lead to a character feeling guilty? Will it lead to your main character feeling angry and running off to their downfall? All of these are good reasons to kill a character. Don’t just kill a character because they’re no longer necessary. Their death needs to have meaning.

Have you chosen a character whose death could lead to conflict? Good. That’s who you’re going to kill.

So now you have the character you’re going to kill. Yes, their death will hurt you just as much as it will hurt the readers. This is a good thing. However much the death impacts you, it will impact the readers just as much (if you wrote the character well, that is).

The key thing to remember is, you want the character’s death to hurt.

I know it’s cruel, but to write a good character death that people won’t call stupid and pointless, it needs to hurt them and leave a mark.

Now to address the question, how do you write the perfect character death/death scene?

There’s just a few things you need to consider.

What relationship does the character you’re killing have with the other characters? Is your character part of a group or a beloved leader of an organization? How will those that care about them react? Will it help the characters grow/change? And my personal favorite, can another character be blamed for the death?

What flaws does your character have? Is your character apt to joking around? Do they have anger management issues? Are they naïve or innocent? Does your character act without thinking? Are they protective or loyal? All of these traits could be the cause of your characters death.

Is ther any way to make the character’s death ironic? Are they a cab driver killed by a taxi? Do they hate technology and die while talking on the phone? Do they control fire then die in an inferno? I would suggest staying away from ironic deaths, as they’re difficult to get right and often take away from the impact of the death. Also, they’re terribly difficult to come up with.

What sort of dramatic event/situation could lead to the death? At which point in your story will a dramatic battle occur where al of the characters you need are present, and all the characters you need to be gone aren’t? Is it far enough into the story that your readers would have had enought time to really love the character? Make sur the death doesn’t get in the way of the plot, but rather spurs it on.

Those are the main questions to ask yourself. If you answer them all accurately, you should easily be able to craft the perfect character death.

Coming to the point where you can craft the character death is probably the hardest part. There are two possible ways to go about the planning process:

One, you can write a while until you get to a point where the character can die in an epically awesome way based on the above tips.

Two, you can plan the plot of the story and decide where it would be best to kill the character and how. In this case, your plan may change as your story progresses.

Neither plan is better or worse than the other, so do whatever you please. Either way, make sure to use these tips in planning your character death, and definitely make sure to include a character death!

Happy fictional character killing!

P.S. Yes, I borrowed a quote from the SherlockTV series. Deal with it.

Before I even begin, note: Any person included in any form of a story is a character for that story.

These links come from the collection I’ve been building over the last few years, and they all have to do with describing a character. From the way they look to the way they speak to how their expressions change, I’ve collected all my favorite websites here to make them easier for you to find!

Rememeber to read all of the descriptions thoroughly to choose the perfect word/phrase. That’s the way to create the best possible character.

Websites for Describing Characters

Words used to describe someone’s voice: Ever tried to describe someone’s voice, and you just couldn’t think of a word that quite works? This link might just help out. It’ll take you to a page of Macmillon Dictionary (you’ll see a lot of that in this post) that consists of an alphabetically ordered listing of every word that directly has to do with a person’s voice. It’s basically awesome.

Words used to describe facial expression: Another source from Macmillon Dictionary, this page is set up just like the one with the voices, but with facial expressions instead: It consists of an aphabetically ordered listing of every word that directly has to do with a person’s facial expression. It really helps when trying to pinpoint emotions, I swear.

Describing a person’s muscles and general shape: Yet another source from Macmilliom Dictionary! This one is exactly what it sounds like: It’s a full listing of every word that directly describes a person’s body shape. Oh my gosh, this might be the most helpful source at all. Seriously! If you don’t want to call a guy handsome or strong, or a girl pretty or skinny, this has a bunch of other options that are much more interesting!

Physical Feature Thesaurus: Not quite sure what exactly you want your character to look like? This may help. It isn’t a complete list (you’d have to buy the thesaurus for a complete list), but it’s still very langthy and helpful. Arms, backs, ears, toenails—this page has got it all! It even has descriptions for butts! You know, just in case you want the other characters looking…

Cheat Sheets for Writing Body Language: Are you trying to portray a character’s emotion, but don’t want to just outright say “they were feeling…” so and so emotion? Try using body language. This can also help with your character’s overall attitude. Let’s say your character has a secret to hide. Hey, look! There’s an emotion on the list called “secretiveness!” Now you know exactly how your character might normally act. Or, at least a part of how they might normally act. It helps, I swear.

Understanding Body Language and Facial Expressions: If you need help just understanding body language in general, this is a pretty great source. It just goes down a list of different body parts and how they can differ and what such differences might mean. It’s pretty helpful, honestly.

Undestanding Body Language: Another source to help you understand body language. I don’t actually use this source all that much, but if you really want to/need to do an in-depth study of body language, this website has a bunch of links to scientific studies and theories of body language.

Words used to describe clothes: Going back to Macmillion, here’s a list of ways to describe your characters’ clothes. I would suggest being a bit more wary in describing clothes (no one needs to know every detail of what your character is wearing, seriously), but if it’s important to the plot or setting, by all means, go for it. Here’s a great place to properly describe the clothes!

How to describe a character | Using descriptive words: And here’s a whole page worth of lists for describing different aspects of characters. It mainly includes words to describe facial features, but it goes into all sorts of aspects. It’s definitely very, very helpful.

Words used to describe skin color: I would just link Macmillian, but all of these individual pages are the specifically helpful ones, so I’m linking them all individually. Here’s some words for describing skin color.

Handy Words for Skin Tones: If you want some more specific ways to describe specific colors, this palette might help you out some. Make sure to be careful in your description, though. Seriously, don’t want to offend anyone.

Eye Color List: Just so you can get über specific with your eye colors. It’s actually a really fun page to look at… I think I have russet brown eyes. Either that, or chocolate.

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About the Blogger

I'm an aspiring writer and relatively seasoned traveler who only wishes to see, experience, and learn more. I'm crazy about the idea of perspectives, find joy in the little things, and make it my personal mission to see the beauty is everything. Welcome to my blog, and thank you for taking the time to visit! Remember, carpe diem!

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